On Yer Marx

 

 (imdb)

A DAY AT THE RACES-1937-Judy (Maureen O'Sullivan) is having trouble running her sanitarium because it's in debt. Her chauffeur is Tony (Chico Marx). She gets really mad when her radio singer boyfriend Gil Stewart (Alan Jones) buys a racehorse. His jockey is Stuffy (Harpo Marx). Hypochondriac Mrs. Upjohn (Margaret Dumont) agrees to help out when she hears Dr. Hackenbush (Groucho Marx) is coming (he's actually a veterinarian). Mr. Morgan (Douglas Dumbrille; later in THE BIG STORE with the brothers) wants her place and has a corrupt business Mgr. Whitmore (Leonard Ceeley) try and get it. Later Hackenbush is pursued by floozy Flo (Esther Muir) who tries to get Hackenbush in trouble with Mrs. Upjohn but Tony & Stuffy save him with a hilarious wallpaper act. There's more outrageous comedy when Morgan brings in a specialist (Sig Ruman) to examine Upjohn. 

This seventh madcap Marx Brothers comedy was directed by Sam Wood who had already worked with the brothers on the classic A NIGHT AT THE OPERA in 1935 (which also featured Jones, Dumont and Ruman). He went on to direct many more films including GOODBYE MR. CHIPS (1939), KITTY FOYLE (1940) and THE PRIDE OF THE YANKEES (1942). Executive producer (and Marx Brothers supporter) Irving Thalberg died during production. Groucho (who didn't care much for director Wood) later said that with Thalberg's death he lost interest in making movies. 

DAY is also the only Marx Bros. film to get an Oscar nomination (for choreography!). 37 years later Groucho received a honorary Oscar. Despite having a lot of music, several songs were cut including Groucho's “Dr. Hackenbush”!

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Browning's Second To Last

 

DEVIL DOLL-1936-Two Devil's Island escapees hide out. One guy, Marcel (Henry B. Walthall), a scientist can shrink living things (he's only done it with dogs so far). He seems to think this will provide more food for mankind. The other guy Paul Lavond (Lionel Barrymore) wants revenge on the business partners who put him in jail. When Marcel dies, Lavond helps Marcel's wife experiment on their servant girl ("We can make the whole world small"). He really doesn't want any part of it but then has an idea. He disguises himself as an old woman and plans his vengeance against the three who did him in. Meanwhile he also visits his daughter Lorraine (Maureen O'Sullivan) who hates her father. She lives with her grandmother who knows her son's secret. Lavond sends a shrunk down person to rob and kill his accusers. In the end, he makes one of them confess (Pedro DeCordoba) and Marcel's wife tries to kill Lavond but she accidentally blows herself up. Lavond meets Lorraine but doesn't reveal his identity, pretending to be Marcel. He says her father is dead but he loved her very much. 

Although for some reason he isn't credited this is director Tod Browning's penultimate film (he made his last MIRACLES FOR SALE 3 years later). It makes good use of the miniature people and has good acting. One of the screenwriters was Erich von Stroheim. Guy Endore (MAD LOVE) was also a co-writer. It's based on a novel by A. Merritt.

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3 Quickies. It's a Busy Weekend!

CINDERELLA-2006-This is not based on the famous fairy tale that features evil step sisters. This is a Korean made sort of horror film about a girl named Hyunsu who’s mother is a plastic surgeon. She does cosmetic surgery on some of her friends who eventually wind up dead. It has some good effects but overall the plot is confusing and the ending is a disappointment.



A DIRTY CARNIVAL-2006-This is an very well made Scorese’ influenced South Korean gangster film. Byung-doo is a low level mobster who seems more like a doormat than a thug but after murdering a lawyer for a his boss he slowly and viciously gains more power and becomes more ruthless. His childhood friend who is now a filmmaker uses Byung’s knowledge to make his own gangster film and this causes problems. There’s several violent fights but it was a little too long for me.



THE TALL T-1957-Randolph Scott is a loner cowboy who runs up against outlaw Richard Boone and his two goons (Skip Homeier & Henry Silva) when hitching a stage coach ride with some newlyweds (Maureen O’Sullivan & John Hubbard). This is the second of seven “adult” westerns Scott made with director Budd Boetticher from 1956-1960. It’s psychological, violent and very cool! Arthur Hunnicutt is a doomed stage driver. Burt Kennedy wrote the script based on a story by Elmore Leonard.

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Just Imagine...if it was real...

JUST IMAGINE-1930-This whacked out musical-comedy-fantasy is set in the far flung future of 1980 where everyone has numbers instead of names. Part of the plot involves a man (comedian El Brendel, who speaks with a phony Swedish accent) from 1930 being revived in the future. The other part has a guy J-21(John Garrick) who's in love with a married women LN-18 (Maureen O'Sullivan in her third movie). The musical numbers are pretty hokey and quite bizarre in some cases. The art deco sets and special effects are great though.

For years this movie was unseen (I think it might have been considered a "lost film") but in the '60's the horror magazine "Famous Monsters Of Filmland" occasionally ran stills from JI and editor Forrest J Ackerman touted it as one of the greatest films ever made. I wonder if he ever saw it?!

Anyway, a scientist convinces the J-21 to take a spaceship to Mars with his best friend RT-42 and Brendel, who's character chooses the name Single 0. The inhabitants are very strange and the men appear to be gay ("She's not the queen, he is")!

JUST IMAGINE was written by the songwriting team of DeSylva, Henderson and Brown (they wrote a huge amount of famous songs but none from this movie) and directed by David Miller who made many movies in the '30's & '40's including directing Karloff, Lugosi and Lorre in the Big Band comedy-mystery YOU'LL FIND OUT. In the late '50's he turned to TV. 

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